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PPL Corporation

STREAMLINE WAREHOUSE OPERATIONS WITH Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory

A NEW ERA FOR ENERGY COMPANIES

Generating nearly 10,000 megawatts of capacity worldwide, PPL Corporation exemplifies the successful model of a global energy company. Headquartered in Allentown, PA, PPL Corporation operates fossil fuel, nuclear, hydro, and natural gas facilities in the northeastern and western United States, Latin America, and Europe. Since deregulation ushered in a new era of competition in the mid-80s, PPL Corporation has expanded into new markets and offers new energy-related products and services. Looking to the future, PPL Corporation also is undertaking an aggressive U.S. expansion strategy for doubling its capacity to make it one of the top electricity generation companies in the U.S. The rigors of deregulation and the company's long-term growth strategy have also driven PPL Corporation to operate its supply chain with more efficiency and flexibility.

For success in this new world of competition, PPL Corporation focused on reducing costs, improving resource allocation, and optimizing efficiency throughout its warehouse facilities servicing PPL Corporation's gas distribution businesses, electric transmission and distribution operations, nuclear generating station in Pennsylvania, and two generating stations in Montana. For this strategy to succeed, PPL Corporation implemented Asset Suite, a comprehensive suite of asset management applications from Ventyx, to manage the Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) supply chain at its warehouses. The warehouses, and outside yards, some of which total more than 100,000 square feet, store more than 80,000 catalog identification numbers (CIDs) with inventory ranging from generating station replacement parts to wiring, monitoring instruments, and transformers.

With the size and complexity of this warehouse infrastructure, PPL Corporation realized mobile computing was essential to further improving productivity and operational efficiency. In 1999, PPL Corporation began implementing Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory mobile computing solution.

"It was a burning platform here," said John DeFluri, manager of warehouse operations. "We had to quickly improve our usage of resources to compete successfully in this new deregulated environment. We installed AnyWare for Inventory to enhance our Asset Suite system in order to survive and thrive in this new deregulated environment."

A NEW WAREHOUSING MODEL FOR PPL CORPORATION

PPL Corporation realizes that to compete effectively, warehouses should no longer be merely places to accumulate and store inventory to meet future demand. Rather, through the use of Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory's mobile computing technology, it is transforming these warehouses into centers that handle integrated flow processes within their internal supply chain. This enables PPL Corporation to shrink the order-to-delivery cycle to new levels of efficiency.

On the warehousing level, responding to changing business conditions means taking a much more fluid approach to asset use. It means making resource allocation more effective with resulting efficiencies in inventory management. "Asset Suite's AnyWare for Inventory has helped PPL Corporation achieve that goal," says DeFluri.

THE SOLUTION IN DETAIL:

Ventyx's AnyWare for Inventory module within Asset Suite, along with the rest of the Asset Management application, add value to four essential processes performed at the PPL Corporation warehouses: storage of materials and tools, order fulfillment, delivery services, and tool services. The system gives the warehouse staff complete visibility of the entire inventory—regardless of where it is stored. With this mobile computing system, real-time information flows throughout each key process in the warehouses: receiving, putaway, picking, returns, and bin-movement activities.

Streamlining Cycle Counting and Order Picking
Cycle-counting and the order-picking processes have long been recognized as tedious tasks subject to numerous errors. However, "these are important processes in managing inventory and satisfying customer demand," says DeFluri. Prior to implementing Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory, cycle counting and picking were time-consuming processes, with many inefficient and crisscrossing steps. It also required extra resources, whereby one person was dedicated to cycle counting while another worker, oftentimes right behind the cycle counter, was picking an order.

The most inefficient process, however, was the long paper trail required to complete a picking process and a cycle count. At PPL Corporation, workers would receive paper printouts of a work order, look up the location, go to the shelf to pick that material, and mark the quantity on the paper form. After finishing their scheduled picking for that order, they would then hand the paper form over to a clerk, who would enter the quantities into a computer. Then, it was on to the next work order, walking to another location and going through the same steps that involved too many handoffs. Not only was this process time-consuming, but it was fraught with a high potential for errors, due to transposing of numbers, illegible handwriting, and other mistakes.

With Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory, the entire process has been streamlined. Work orders now are accessed directly from workers' handheld devices. These wireless devices also locate the items within the warehouse. Workers then scan the items picked, enter in the quantity, and complete the task. Once that's done, a label is automatically printed for the shipment. If workers accidentally go to the wrong location, the device will alert them to the mistake. Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory also provides a continuous order-fulfillment process: workers continue on to their next orders without ever having to return to the computer desktop location to log an individual order.

THE IMPLEMENTATION:

Ventyx and PPL Corporation: A Powerful Partnership
Implementation of Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory, from the information technology point of view, required Local Area Network changes to accommodate the wireless access points mounted on walls and ceilings, and the configuration and deployment of the handheld devices. Since the access points and the handheld devices were mature technology, it was easy to implement.

At first, workers were somewhat reluctant to use these new features, according to Eli Cekovic, financial support process analyst and project manager of the implementation. But, when they saw how easy it was to learn, and how it made their jobs more productive, it gained wide acceptance by the warehouse staff. Average training time took less than five hours. The software, with its drop-down menus and intuitive navigation features, essentially walks employees through each step they need to perform. That's an important benefit since it allows warehouse personnel to focus on efficiently performing their work.

Overall, Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory was implemented in 26 sites, including PPL's five major warehouses with three more completed in 2001. More than 90 users now rely on Ventyx Asset Suite to perform their warehouse responsibilities.

PPL Corporation was eight months ahead of schedule in its initial three-year plan to implement Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory. A big part of the reason why the implementation ran so smoothly and quickly was the help of the Ventyx Professional Services team, says Cekovic. He adds, "They help us solve our problems working within our own business processes rather than us changing our processes to fit their software. That makes for a powerful partnership."

THE VALUE: REAL-TIME INVENTORY MANAGEMENT

PPL Corporation reports Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory implementation has cut one-third off the time in the picking process. The application has allowed PPL Corporation to go totally paperless, which helps the company efficiently process on average more than 1,500 transactions a day, 24 hours a day, six days a week. And it also requires less resources since one worker can now pick and do cycle counts without the need for a data-entry clerk.

Overhead costs already have been reduced 20 percent at PPL Corporation. The system also has cut product putaway/location errors. DeFluri notes, "It's given us complete visibility as materials move through our warehouses. In today's deregulated environment, warehouses are forced to make faster and more frequent deliveries. As a result, you need to pick faster and more efficiently than ever before. With Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory, we can deliver the right materials, to the right location, when the customer wants it."

PPL Corporation cites real-time inventory management as a key benefit of Asset Suite: AnyWare for Inventory. In the picking process, as soon as the CID number is scanned, the inventory levels of that item are updated real-time into Asset Suite's inventory application. If inventory is running low on a certain item, Asset Suite automatically orders the material through the appropriate supplier, making replenishment faster and more accurate.

"We improved our inventory accuracy, quality of service, and our timeliness with our new process improvements and Asset Suite," DeFluri says. As proof, PPL Corporation reports dramatic improvements in on-time picks—98.89 percent from 64 percent prior to implementation of the system.

ANALYSIS OF THE VALUE:

Managing Warehouse Assets
Not only does Ventyx Asset Suite Asset Management solution give DeFluri up-to-the-minute inventory information but it also provides useful staff performance information. Through Asset Suite, a management report analyzes crew information, individuals, and CID numbers. From this report, DeFluri can measure workload and performance, by crew and individual. This report also allows DeFluri to better manage employee workloads and determines if performance gaps are related to any processes that may need the attention of management.

Collaboration with Suppliers
Asset Suite; AnyWare for Inventory speeds up the PPL Corporation receiving process. When a shipment arrives, workers just scan the box: the purchase order automatically comes up on the screen, then the order is accepted, and a check is automatically processed to the vendor through integration with an electronic payment system. DeFluri says as more of PPL Corporation's suppliers embrace electronic technologies, he expects this tight collaboration to increase further.

Improved Maintenance Management
DeFluri's warehouse operations also include maintenance of tools. With Asset Suite, the history of each tool, from a simple drill to costly hoists, can be tracked. Using a special unit-type code (UTC) on each tool, and a handheld device, workers can scan the tool during repair and track both the labor time and repair parts that are used in the repair of the tool. This results in an accurate accounting of the cost of the repairs of each individual tool. Previously, workers spent a lot of time manually typing the information. Now, this information is immediately updated to the Asset Suite server, where the full history of the tool is recorded.

This is especially useful in preventative maintenance of these tools. Once a UTC code is scanned, the system also automatically alerts the fieldworker if the tool needs to be returned to Warehouse Operations for service, testing, and/or recertification, as required by OSHA and other regulators. This is an invaluable feature when maintaining tools required in the operation of a nuclear plant.